Download The Rise of the Farm Problem

The Rise of the Farm
Problem
The dilemma of the farmer’s place in
an industrial society
Characteristics of Post-Civil War
Agriculture
A. Rapid Expansion of Area
1. Rapid Expansion of the West
B. Mechanization
1. Shortages of Labor during the Civil War led
to need for mechanization (except in the South)
C. Scientific Agriculture
1. Government Programs
• The "Little Giant" thresher, like other farm
machinery, reduces farm labor needs, but
increases capital costs
Appearance of the Basic Problem
A. Reasons
1. need for capital
2. more settlers
3. Credit
B. Form of Debt
1. Real Estate
2. Chattel Mortgages
3. In South-Crop liens
Marketing Problems
A. Grain Elevators & Warehouses
1. Farmers at mercy of grain operators and RR’s
B. Railroads
1. Predatory Monopolies?
Loading a grain steamer at Milwaukee--linking Midwestern farmers with the world
economy
Price Problems
A. Overproduction
B. Inadequacies of Credit System
1. based on gold standard making it “inelastic”
C. Deflation
1. Paying back debts in more valuable currency
then borrowed
Natural Disasters
A. Drought
1. from 1887 on
successively dry years
2. Mortgage companies
foreclosed on huge tracts
of land
B. Insects, dust storms, etc
1. added to the misery
Consequences for the Farmer
A. Economic Loss
1. other areas of the country prospered while
farmers lagged
2. no “free” land left
B. Political Loss
1. politics falls into the hands of industrialists
after years of agrarian rule
C. Social Loss
1. farmers become second class citizenshayseeds, rubes, hicks etc